Abstract

In early modern Europe, courtrooms were often equipped with a wide range of artworks: paintings, sculpture and furniture as artistic mediums as well as the architecture itself all served to express a certain idea of how justice has been understood or how it was supposed to be communicated to the public. This paper argues that these artistic programmes fulfilled multi-layered functions in their judicial surroundings. The status of images as both material and immaterial objects enables their metaphorical potential, and also allows them to take part as agents in the process of administering justice. The Niedergericht in Lüneburg serves as an exceptional example of the complex meaning of courtroom decorations. The Niedergericht itself is decorated with several paintings showing, among other things, stories from the Old and the New Testament. These artworks create an image of justice which, on the one hand, is to be seen as a genealogical derivation of law from heavenly authority, and on the other hand as a meta-comment on the juridical practice of the time. Therefore, courtroom decoration enforces the law and the administering of justice.